Attitudes are contagious. Make yours worth catching. – Unknown
I had never really thought about attitudes as being contagious. Even when I was presented with proof time and again, I never got the hint. When my children were very young, and I woke up in a bad mood, chances are, they’d be in a bad mood too. I just figured it was a thing. I never thought they were taking their cues from me. But the were.
I finally figured it out when I started teaching. I’m human, I have moods, good ones, bad ones and indifferent ones. I work very hard to keep my bad 
moods away from my students, and I’m usually pretty successful. I’ve actually become quite good at figuring out what has put me in a mood, and flipping it to be more positive. A couple of years ago, I had a student in my first period class that was always in a bad mood. No matter what was going on and what was happening, their mood was horrible, and it started to impact me. My moods would get worse, and it would color my whole day. I didn’t realize it at the time, but his attitude was contagious.
I started figuring it out when the student stopped coming to school (sadly that happens a lot), and when they stopped coming, the mood in the room changed, the contagion was gone. And my good attitude spread to the remaining kids. That was a lesson too. Attitudes are contagious, but its easier for a bad attitude to spread than it is for a good attitude. That’s kind of sad.
I was actually very happy when that student started coming back to school because I doubled my efforts to be positive around them, and upbeat and I continued to try and figure out why they were always in such a bad mood. That student graduated, but the lesson’s I learned have stayed with me. Attitudes are contagious, and that is something I’m never going to forget. Bad attitudes are more contagious. I’m not sure why but it just means I need to double up on the positive vibes when I’m faced with a negative attitude coming at me.
Attitudes are contagious, so when you have a good one, spread it to the world.
